Thursday, June 19, 2014

5 Steps to Nail Historical Fiction—Faking it Right

In my last post I talked about why I
love Historical Fiction—a great novel in the genre can teach us not only who we are, but also who we were. I
love the brackish headwaters where history and fiction collide and transform
into something magical. But there’s an art to the genre, the art of faking it
so no one realizes!

That’s right,
you’ve got to sell it as good, or better, than Meg Ryan as she embarrasses the
hell out of Billy Crystal. Just like the old lady at the end of that scene, you
want your readers to raise their hands and say: “I’ll have what she’s having!”

But how do we
get there?

To me, there
are 5 critical elements to writing a great historical. Whenever I pick up a
novel in the genre and something doesn’t feel right, I can almost always trace
it back to one of these few issues.

1. A Captivating
Story and Good (if not Great) Writing

I know what
you’re thinking right now, “What a load of crap! Every great work of fiction
needs a great story and great writing.” And you’re right! Historical fiction is
no different than any other work of fiction, that’s the point. The story needs
to rock and it needs to keep rocking. All too often I’ll pick up an example
where the author thinks their unique setting, or something quirky about the
time period can carry the story. IT CAN’T! Those things are important, but from
page one you’ve got to be hooked. Take Charles Portis’s amazing novel True
Grit. That has one of the best opening paragraphs of any novel anywhere.

“People do not give it credence that a
fourteen-year-old girl could leave home and go off in the wintertime to avenge
her father’s blood but it did not seem so strange then, although I will say it
did not happen every day.”

BAM! I’m
hooked. Mattie Ross is going to go an-ass kicking, and I can’t wait to be there
with her!

So how about
great writing? There’s the cliché of our writing generation, as if anyone
strives for bad writing. But it happens…and it gets published. Here’s the
secret: You don’t need great writing
as long as you don’t have bad
writing. Great writing—you notice. Bad writing—you notice. But if you thread
the needle and write an awesome story, you can get away with plain old good
writing. As Tom Pitts
said in his recent post (NeverJoin a Club That Would Have You As A Member):

“The idiosyncrasies of word choice and
the distraction of paragraph placement ultimately goes unnoticed by most
readers. They just want the damn thing to move.”

Of course we
all want to be Hemmingway and write beautiful literature, but in truth, as long
as we stay away from bad writing your readers will love it IF the story works. So what is bad writing? When you read it to
yourself out loud, and you NOTICE the
writing, it’s either good or bad. And from there it's easy to tell. The best
example of good writing I can give, try out Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried—there are pages I just re-read again and
again…that’s how I know it’s good.

2. Setting

Finally! This
is what makes a historical novel, well, a historical novel. It takes place in
yester-year! I’m sure we could be picky about the definition, as in how many
years had to have passed before the author first picks up his/her pen…but
honestly, who cares. Some things we consider historical today (or at least some
things that I consider historical fiction) were actually written long ago and
were contemporary fiction at the time. Take Stephen Crane’s Red Badge of Courage. I call it
historical fiction, and you can find it on Amazon in the historical category.
(It’s also in the Classics section, but I’m claiming it for all of us
Historical Fiction junkies!) But the point is that the novel is set at some
point in the past. A unique device that many historicals then utilize is
turning the setting into character. While this isn’t a device only used in
historical fiction, I think it comes about more often in historicals because
authors are already so invested in describing the setting to build
authenticity, that the natural extension is for setting to take on a life of
its own. And it’s a great way to get all that good research onto the page
without the reader noticing (i.e. without bad writing!).

So where do we
start on setting? There are so many places to choose from! I like to set my
stories in Americana—somewhere, sometime. Think of all the crazy time periods
we have had: the Revolution, the Wild West, the Civil War, the list just goes
on an on. And it doesn't have to be set around a war, although those periods do
come equipped with plenty of drama and tension. But your reader needs something
to keep them motivated, to keep them loving the setting as much as the story.
They're there to learn as well as to be entertained—even if they don't know it!

A great example
is The Help by Kathryn Stockett, writing about the South in 1962. Amazing
setting, right? Plenty of drama to be had in a time where the nation is divided
on race and other social issues. Stockett chose a setting that remains relevant
today, is educational as you read, and is damn entertaining.

African American Children in the South Looking in at an All-White Playground

3. Interesting
POV Character

Again, another
cop-out! Of course you need interesting characters. This is true for all
fiction. But in historical fiction, your characters need to sell their setting
for you. I guess the same could be said of every other genre, but when I pick
up an unconvincing historical, sometimes it boils down to the fact that the
character seems out of place, not in the right time period even. They are the
actors, and they have to interact correctly with their environment in order to
sell the story. Mattie Ross from True Grit, or Inman in Charles Frazier's
monumental Cold Mountain are excellent examples. They know how to live in their
world, how to act, what to wear, how to speak the lingo. Sometimes where the
character leaves off and the setting takes over is a blurry line, and the
character can teach the reader as much about the world they are immersed in as
any other element of the story. They need to be rich, emotionally complex, and
hopefully a few are even at odds with one another to ratchet up the tension.
But above all they need to be REAL! Mattie Ross pushes the boundary of this in
True Grit, as a girl who tracks down her father's killer. But Charles Portis
sells it through the setting, and the great story, and of course, through an
obstinate and intelligent 14-year old full of sass and hell bent on revenge. Or how about Laurie Halse Anderson's Chains trilogy (Chains, Forge, and TBD), where we see the Revolution through the eyes of two slaves, 13-year old Isabel and the slightly older Curzon. Interesting setting, and then Anderson piles it on with amazing characters. No wonder she was a National Book Award Finalist!

4. Research

That's a
terrible word, isn't it? It strikes fear into the hearts of high-school
students everywhere. Why would you have to do research if you're writing
fiction? It's all made up, right?

WRONG! Sure,
the story, the characters, the plot, even parts of the setting can all be the
creative genius of the author, but in a historical it has to fit on the
scaffolding of History. It has to make sense with the time. That's the big
picture. As you narrow in, there are all sorts of details you have to get
right. Let's say you write a western thriller—as in a thriller set in the Old
West. What kinds of guns did they carry? Do they have five or six shells in the
cylinders? How long does it take to ride a train from Atlanta to Chattanooga?
If they go by horse, how long can a horse go for without food and water? You
just can't have a good believable historical if your main character is Bruce
Willis from Die Hard who never runs out of bullets. I mean, come on, he’s
shooting a Beretta 92 for like 20 minutes without a single mag change.

There are
plenty of places to do research, and it's easier than ever with the trusty
Interweb thingy. Just fire up Google, and the resources are almost limitless.
But nothing beats a boots on the ground approach. If you're going to write
about the foothills of Tennessee, then go get out there! See them for yourself.
Visit the battlefields, the old houses, or if you're Arthur Kerns, (author of The African Contract) travel to
Africa to do your research! From One of Arthur's latest posts (Africa Can Be A Dangerous Place):

“While doing research for my latest novel, The African
Contract, I ran across an entry in one of my travel journals. It recorded a
visit to a friend’s village miles away from the nearest African city. Strolling
among the homes, Dingane introduced me to his relatives and friends, while
giving me a history of the region.”

Okay, you
don't HAVE to travel to Africa, but think of the adventures you can go get into
all in the excuse that you're doing research for your great American novel.

5. The Lens of
History

Finally, this
one of the unique elements to Historical Fiction. It all has to do with how the
present world, the modern world, views the past. If I truly wrote a story
exactly like it would have occurred, chances are no one would like it. Pick up
the Red Badge of Courage. It was
penned (literally) in 1893, and the writing is so very different. Even though
it’s an amazing piece of literature, it might not have enjoyed the same success
if it were published today—if it could even get published (that’s a whole other
conversation). So there’s a trick to writing historical fiction. You don’t
necessarily want to write in the style of days long ago, in fact, you can't! (I
know, that kind of contradicts everything I said above). But what you really
want to do is to convince all of us readers that we’re in that yesteryear time
period, while still relating to the world of today. So the writer needs to take
that lens of history, to warp the story enough that those of us reading it
today find it believable, even though the very act of doing so distorts how the
action would have played out if the story were real. Joe Clifford brings that
point home in his latest post (Planting the Clues in Crime Fiction):

“All art is contrived. We make it up. The trick is to keep those strings
tugged safely behind the curtain, out of sight, and making the work seem effortless.”

And while Joe
is talking about writing mysteries, that is also the magic in writing
Historical Fiction—the art of faking it just enough to be believable while
still capturing the essence of the time, educating the reader, and at all times
providing the entertainment.

Tj Turner is a scientist, a
federal agent, a military officer, and a writer. His first novel,
Lincoln's Bodyguard, is due out from Oceanview Publishing in April 2015. He can
be reached at tj@tjturnerauthor.com, or through his amazing Literary Agent,
Elizabeth Kracht at liz@kimberleycameron.com. Learn more at www.tjturnerauthor.com

3 comments
:

A friend just gave me The Savage Garden by Mark Mills. I can't wait to dig in and look for the things you've mentioned. This will be my first historical fiction novel. It should be an interesting read. I understand Mark Mills is quite adept in writing historical fiction, so I'm sure he'll nail every point.

Outstanding post. Cold Mountain is an excellent example of good writing, excellent writing even. The Killer Angels is another of my favorite in the genre. And I look forward to your book, TJ, when it comes out in the spring.